Since the invention of the integrated circuit (IC), the semiconductor industry has experienced rapid growth due to continuous improvements in the integration density of various electronic components (i.e., transistors, diodes, resistors, capacitors, etc.). For the most part, this improvement in integration density has come from repeated reductions in minimum feature size, which allows more components to be integrated into a given area.
However, merely decreasing the minimum feature size of transistors, diodes, resistors, capacitors and the like are merely one aspect that can be improved in the attempts to reduce the overall size of semiconductors devices. Other aspects that are currently under review include other aspects of the semiconductor devices. Improvements in these other structures are being investigated for reductions in size.